The best time for creative endeavors is between 2 – 5 hours from the time you wake up.

What is the first thing you do after waking up?

Mine tends to be looking at my phone for emails, social media, and general “waking up.” Looking at what potential problems may greet us before going to the office. In other words, avoidance of the real work at hand.

Arriving at the office, the first thing I tend to do, and most of the people around me, is check email. Discover the problems other people would like us to take care of. This is the start of a reactionary day.

On the surface, this appears to be productive. Taking tasks of the to-do list. But not all tasks are created equal.

This scenario is productive procrastination.

Living in the small tasks that make us think we are productive. In the context of our mornings, maybe this is “warming up” for the day.

In the context of solving important problems, it is avoiding difficult work and providing effective solutions.

Productive procrastination is busywork. It’s like a bad drug. You feel great while doing it, but afterwards, you’re left wondering what happened. Where your day went.

Productive procrastination is dangerous. Especially, when we continually let ourselves fall into busywork during our peak energy levels. Allowing the tasks which do not deserve our optimal energy, to consume the most productive parts of our day.

If you have set your priorities, then you already understand what work will generate the largest impact to your business.

Why not get started with this first?

Good luck and good selling!

Delegating tasks is about empowering people. It lightens your work load. It is inclusive.

Failure to delegate puts the pressure on. All the responsibility is yours. Therefore, when things do not get done, as they may not, there is only one person to blame.

An unwillingness to relinquish control and delegate, shows there is a lack of trust in those you work with. A lack of trust in the system you created. A failure to define and explain a vision. It provides no upward opportunities for those you work with.

Delegation is a skill, which requires developing a system that can be repeated. It means defining your vision, your companies vision, and finding the correct people to execute that vision.

Delegation requires trust in your ability to hire, develop a vision, and build a scalable system.

Executing well in these three areas is how you create a highly functioning team. When there is a team, there can be a culture. With a culture you can have a shared vision. This results in working towards a common goal. Something to bond, connect with, and share.

Everybody has strengths. It is best to delegate tasks to those who have the strengths to execute them flawlessly.

Good luck and good selling!

Being critical is advantageous in business. Critically assessing the numbers. Critiquing your competitors to find their weaknesses. A manager being critical of your performance during a review.

All of this is meant to expose weaknesses in your work and make you aware of where to improve.

Being a critic is useful in identifying a problem, not always in providing a solution.

Rarely do we need someone educating us about our weaknesses; chances are we already know. What we need are solutions.

Solutions are important. Solutions present business opportunities. Solutions help people, and provide value.

In determining the best course of action when solving a problem, the critic is sure to alert you of all the reasons something will fail.

It’s easy to be a critic. The critic will:

1. Say: “we have never done that before”
2. Say: “that won’t work”
3. Argue about semantics—not the idea
4. Create an environment where new ideas are discouraged
5. Views a glass half empty

Be the opposite of a critic, be an advocate. Understand the great things occurring, and provide solutions to make them better. This will drive value to customers and help more people.

An advocate understands the project, the work, and the solution at hand. An advocate will:

1. Work to make things better
2. Provide support for the idea at hand
3. Find a solution
4. Encourage new ideas
5. Understand the big picture

Being an advocate means you want to improve. Advocates are interested in solutions that move the project forward. Maybe they work, maybe they don’t. They have a willingness to try again.

Being a critic has a time and a place. “Critical thinking without hope is cynicism. Hope without critical thinking is naïveté.” – Maria Popova

But if you’re overly critical and never an advocate, can you provide the most value to your customers and colleagues?

Does you inner critic prevent you from being an advocate?

Good luck and good selling!